8 ms·

Vanderbilt University plans new campus in San Francisco

18 points by noleary 8mo ago

androiddrew 8mo ago
What do I do with these billions of dollars in the endowment? Ah yes buy some really expensive real estate, and continue the whole artificial scarcity that is my brand.
- prodigycorp 8mo ago
  At least they are spending it.
alephnerd 8mo ago
The actual announcement by Vandy - https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2026/01/13/vanderbilt-university-to-establish-full-time-academic-campus-in-san-francisco/ https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2026/01/13/vanderbilt-university... Includes a lot of info that the WSJ article glazed over (eg. "Vanderbilt’s planned San Francisco campus expects to serve about 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students") Looking at Vandy NYC [0], I'm guessing they're trying to pull a Wharton@SF and expand their BSchool's presence in the Bay (and thus enhancing their alumni pool) along with subsuming CCA which has been under tough financial strain for the past few years. I'm also guessing the Nashville moniker is negatively impacting undergrad yield (eg. I and my peers didn't even apply to CS@GT for undergrad because of racial, LGBTQ+, and body autonomy worries in Georgia and I know for a fact that Duke has been facing issues with yield protection as well) Edit: You may not agree with these views, but they are actively considered by students nowadays. Most American undergrads are now nonwhite, women, or LGBTQ+, and overwhelmingly lean liberal to progressive. As such, schools in Republican states are negatively impacted even if they are located in Democrat bubbles like Nashville, Austin, or Atlanta. [0] - https://www.vanderbilt.edu/nyc/ https://www.vanderbilt.edu/nyc/
- pyuser583 8mo ago
  Vanderbilt has an acceptance rate of 3-4%, which makes it almost as exclusive as Stanford. They aren’t having trouble getting applicants.
  - alephnerd 8mo ago
    Yield Rate (percentage of admitted students who accept) is what matters, not acceptance rate. Most people who get into Vandy (such as me and my peers years ago) also got into Columbia [1], UChicago [2], Northwestern [3], and other similar programs. Yet Vanderbilt's yield rate of 45% [0] compared to 53-63% of its peers highlights this rising discrepancy, with students choosing to attend alternative peer programs. The only thing that differentiates Vanderbilt from (eg.) Rice was prestige as a supposed T15, yet Vanderbilt's ranking and prestige has been dropping significantly over the past decade [4], and this leaves a university like Vandy in a tough position. The overwhelming majority of students who get into a Vanderbilt tier university lean liberal to progressive and/or are a racial minority, and for these candidates Vandy is not as attractive as it's peers (the likelihood of being "hate crimed" as an Asian American is much higher in Nashville compared to New Haven). Conversely, Vandy and Nashville is viewed as too "woke" by conservative students so they are less interested in matriculating (and anyhow, the overwhelming majority of bachelor degree holders end up leaning liberal). As such, if Vanderbilt wishes to retain it's value proposition, it has no choice but to branch out from it's historical geography becuase it otherwise faces the prospect of being relegated into the same bin as Wake Forest or Tulane - a somewhat prestigious but geographically limited university. For high achieving students (and their parents) and academic faculty, such a prospect is not very attractive. [0] - https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-1624-Vanderbilt-University.html https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-1624-Vanderbilt-... [1] - https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-319-Columbia-University.html https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-319-Columbia-Uni... [2] - https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-1416-University-of-Chicago.html https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-1416-University-... [3] - https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-945-Northwestern-University.html https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-945-Northwestern... [4] - https://vanderbilthustler.com/2023/09/19/vanderbilt-drops-to-lowest-u-s-news-rank-since-2009-university-officials-denounce-methodology/ https://vanderbilthustler.com/2023/09/19/vanderbilt-drops-to...
- rayiner 8mo ago
  Exactly the opposite is happening, enrollment-wise: https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-southern-college-boom https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-southern-college-boom I went to GT and was just at a football game with my teenage daughter. She had a blast and commented how many “brown girls like her” were there compared to her very WASPy, super-liberal Maryland school. She also commented about there being babies everywhere, which was also a plus for her. My cousin just bought a house in the Atlanta suburbs and my two other cousins moved to the DFW area. They all love it. The south is the most culturally Bangladeshi/Indian part of the U.S., for better and for worse.
  - etempleton 8mo ago
    Is your daughter, by chance, attending a private school versus an R1 Public?
  - alephnerd 8mo ago
    A case can be made for Atlanta and Richardson/DFW because there is a fairly large preeexisting community already, but you can't deny that Vandy's yield protection is an issue. Additionally, the CHE article is primarily talking about southern public flagships like UT, Georgia, etc which are targeting a different demographic compared to a Vandy - a university that continues to try and market itself as the "Harvard of the South" and tends to benchmark itself against Ivies, UChicago, and other T15 programs. > The south is the most culturally Bangladeshi/Indian part of the U.S., for better and for worse Yeah no. I'd say the Bay Area and NYC remains the primary hubs for the Desi community, and that's reflected in demographics as well. I don't have complete visibility into the Bangladeshi community, but based on the handful of Bangladeshis I know (families affiliated to BAL or the Army) they and their family ended up in the NYC or DMV with the tech-minded or Hindu Bangladeshis ending up in the Bay.
    - rayiner 8mo ago
      Vanderbilt's yield is over 60% in recent classes: https://vanderbilthustler.com/2025/04/11/record-low-4-7-of-applicants-admitted-to-class-of-2029-regular-decision-acceptance-rate-down-to-3-3/ https://vanderbilthustler.com/2025/04/11/record-low-4-7-of-a.... That's right around Cornell and Columbia: https://www.ivywise.com/blog/college-yield-rates/ https://www.ivywise.com/blog/college-yield-rates/. That's entirely consistent with Vanderbilt's ranking and relative lack of international recognition. Nobody in India or China knows what Vanderbilt is, but they know what Cornell and Columbia are. And the "Harvard of the South" framing doesn't mean they think Vanderbilt is comparable to Harvard. It means it's as good as Harvard in the South. >> The south is the most culturally Bangladeshi/Indian part of the U.S., for better and for worse > Yeah no. I'd say the Bay Area and NYC remains the primary hubs for the Desi community, and that's reflected in demographics as well. I mean the southern U.S. is more culturally similar to India/Bangladesh than other parts of the country. SF and NYC remain the hubs because the vast majority of the U.S. Desi population is post-H1B migration and chain migration from that, and those places are where the H1B jobs are. NYC also has the ethnic enclaves and support networks. Bangladeshis don't go to Queens because they love freezing their asses off in winter.
ProllyInfamous 8mo ago
They're also opening a graduate school in Chattanooga (The Quantum Center), and working on their recently-acquired NYC campus. It's weird that there are only ~100,000 living alumni.

18 points by noleary 8mo ago

What do I do with these billions of dollars in the endowment? Ah yes buy some really expensive real estate, and continue the whole artificial scarcity that is my brand.

prodigycorp 8mo ago
At least they are spending it.

alephnerd 8mo ago

The actual announcement by Vandy - https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2026/01/13/vanderbilt-university-to-establish-full-time-academic-campus-in-san-francisco/ https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2026/01/13/vanderbilt-university... Includes a lot of info that the WSJ article glazed over (eg. "Vanderbilt’s planned San Francisco campus expects to serve about 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students") Looking at Vandy NYC [0], I'm guessing they're trying to pull a Wharton@SF and expand their BSchool's presence in the Bay (and thus enhancing their alumni pool) along with subsuming CCA which has been under tough financial strain for the past few years. I'm also guessing the Nashville moniker is negatively impacting undergrad yield (eg. I and my peers didn't even apply to CS@GT for undergrad because of racial, LGBTQ+, and body autonomy worries in Georgia and I know for a fact that Duke has been facing issues with yield protection as well) Edit: You may not agree with these views, but they are actively considered by students nowadays. Most American undergrads are now nonwhite, women, or LGBTQ+, and overwhelmingly lean liberal to progressive. As such, schools in Republican states are negatively impacted even if they are located in Democrat bubbles like Nashville, Austin, or Atlanta. [0] - https://www.vanderbilt.edu/nyc/ https://www.vanderbilt.edu/nyc/

pyuser583 8mo ago
Vanderbilt has an acceptance rate of 3-4%, which makes it almost as exclusive as Stanford. They aren’t having trouble getting applicants.
- alephnerd 8mo ago
  Yield Rate (percentage of admitted students who accept) is what matters, not acceptance rate. Most people who get into Vandy (such as me and my peers years ago) also got into Columbia [1], UChicago [2], Northwestern [3], and other similar programs. Yet Vanderbilt's yield rate of 45% [0] compared to 53-63% of its peers highlights this rising discrepancy, with students choosing to attend alternative peer programs. The only thing that differentiates Vanderbilt from (eg.) Rice was prestige as a supposed T15, yet Vanderbilt's ranking and prestige has been dropping significantly over the past decade [4], and this leaves a university like Vandy in a tough position. The overwhelming majority of students who get into a Vanderbilt tier university lean liberal to progressive and/or are a racial minority, and for these candidates Vandy is not as attractive as it's peers (the likelihood of being "hate crimed" as an Asian American is much higher in Nashville compared to New Haven). Conversely, Vandy and Nashville is viewed as too "woke" by conservative students so they are less interested in matriculating (and anyhow, the overwhelming majority of bachelor degree holders end up leaning liberal). As such, if Vanderbilt wishes to retain it's value proposition, it has no choice but to branch out from it's historical geography becuase it otherwise faces the prospect of being relegated into the same bin as Wake Forest or Tulane - a somewhat prestigious but geographically limited university. For high achieving students (and their parents) and academic faculty, such a prospect is not very attractive. [0] - https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-1624-Vanderbilt-University.html https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-1624-Vanderbilt-... [1] - https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-319-Columbia-University.html https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-319-Columbia-Uni... [2] - https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-1416-University-of-Chicago.html https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-1416-University-... [3] - https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-945-Northwestern-University.html https://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-945-Northwestern... [4] - https://vanderbilthustler.com/2023/09/19/vanderbilt-drops-to-lowest-u-s-news-rank-since-2009-university-officials-denounce-methodology/ https://vanderbilthustler.com/2023/09/19/vanderbilt-drops-to...
rayiner 8mo ago
Exactly the opposite is happening, enrollment-wise: https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-southern-college-boom https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-southern-college-boom I went to GT and was just at a football game with my teenage daughter. She had a blast and commented how many “brown girls like her” were there compared to her very WASPy, super-liberal Maryland school. She also commented about there being babies everywhere, which was also a plus for her. My cousin just bought a house in the Atlanta suburbs and my two other cousins moved to the DFW area. They all love it. The south is the most culturally Bangladeshi/Indian part of the U.S., for better and for worse.
- etempleton 8mo ago
  Is your daughter, by chance, attending a private school versus an R1 Public?
- alephnerd 8mo ago
  A case can be made for Atlanta and Richardson/DFW because there is a fairly large preeexisting community already, but you can't deny that Vandy's yield protection is an issue. Additionally, the CHE article is primarily talking about southern public flagships like UT, Georgia, etc which are targeting a different demographic compared to a Vandy - a university that continues to try and market itself as the "Harvard of the South" and tends to benchmark itself against Ivies, UChicago, and other T15 programs. > The south is the most culturally Bangladeshi/Indian part of the U.S., for better and for worse Yeah no. I'd say the Bay Area and NYC remains the primary hubs for the Desi community, and that's reflected in demographics as well. I don't have complete visibility into the Bangladeshi community, but based on the handful of Bangladeshis I know (families affiliated to BAL or the Army) they and their family ended up in the NYC or DMV with the tech-minded or Hindu Bangladeshis ending up in the Bay.
  - rayiner 8mo ago
    Vanderbilt's yield is over 60% in recent classes: https://vanderbilthustler.com/2025/04/11/record-low-4-7-of-applicants-admitted-to-class-of-2029-regular-decision-acceptance-rate-down-to-3-3/ https://vanderbilthustler.com/2025/04/11/record-low-4-7-of-a.... That's right around Cornell and Columbia: https://www.ivywise.com/blog/college-yield-rates/ https://www.ivywise.com/blog/college-yield-rates/. That's entirely consistent with Vanderbilt's ranking and relative lack of international recognition. Nobody in India or China knows what Vanderbilt is, but they know what Cornell and Columbia are. And the "Harvard of the South" framing doesn't mean they think Vanderbilt is comparable to Harvard. It means it's as good as Harvard in the South. >> The south is the most culturally Bangladeshi/Indian part of the U.S., for better and for worse > Yeah no. I'd say the Bay Area and NYC remains the primary hubs for the Desi community, and that's reflected in demographics as well. I mean the southern U.S. is more culturally similar to India/Bangladesh than other parts of the country. SF and NYC remain the hubs because the vast majority of the U.S. Desi population is post-H1B migration and chain migration from that, and those places are where the H1B jobs are. NYC also has the ethnic enclaves and support networks. Bangladeshis don't go to Queens because they love freezing their asses off in winter.

ProllyInfamous 8mo ago

They're also opening a graduate school in Chattanooga (The Quantum Center), and working on their recently-acquired NYC campus. It's weird that there are only ~100,000 living alumni.